that was to be done they seem antiently to have had no other Rule but when their Corn was Ripe and though that might not be so certain a Guide for the True Measure of a particular Year yet in Ten thousand Years would never err much but was as fixed and certain as their Seasons and Harvests BUT after the Jews had been Conquei'd by the Babylonians Persians and Greeks and carry'd Captives into all Nations they saw the different Seasons of Harvests in the several Climates and so in order to an Uniformity were forced to establish their Year upon Astronomical Rules and Reduce it into Tables that so the Jews in their Disperson all the World over might be Vnited in their Feasts and keep their Passover as they now do at the same time ONE Principal thing agreed on was the Dependance of their First Month upon the Vernal Equinox or the Suns entrance into Aries and particularly that the 15th Day of that Month should be always after it and When that was the Jews in the Time of Our Saviour seem to have taken from J. Caesar's Calendar For that Emperour and his Successor Augustus were very kind to the Jews indulged them the use of their own Law excused them from Tribute every Seventh Year and sent Sacrifices to Jerusalem for the Daily Oblation For which Reasons the Jews were extreamly Fond of them and as even Suetonius Relates Lamented many Days and Nights together at the Funeral of the former This was it that made them so readily comply with the New Calendar of Julius Caesar as far as their Law would give leave and at least take the time of the Vernal Equinox and Suns entrance into Aries from thence the first of which was there fix'd at March the 25th the other at the 18th Day of the same Month. And whatever Rules of this nature were once agreed on by the Sanhedrim or Chief Council at Jerusalem they took care to Communicate to the Jews all the World over NOW its evident from the Gospels that Our Saviour was Crucified on Friday at the Jewish Passover and Rose again from the Dead on the Sunday following being at that time call'd The first day of the Week Mat. 28. 1. Mark 16. 1 2 c. And when the Christians thought it necessary to keep up the Memory of so great a Deliverance by a Solemn Festival they call'd theirs also the Passover and had no other Rules for the finding of it but what the Jews had for theirs and left the Calculation of it to them For most of the First Christians were Converts from Judaism and Zealous for the Rites of the Law of Moses Acts 21. 20. and one Philip giving an Account of a Paschal Synod in the Second Century begins his Epistle with this Observation That the Apostles being wholly taken up with Preaching of the Gospel to the several Nations of the World did not establish any Rules among Christians for the exact time of Easter And Epiphanius farther relates That there was an old Apostolick Constitution by which the Christians were forbidden to trouble themselves with scrupulous Calculations but keep it at the same time as the Christians of Jerusalem who being Converts from the Jews understood the Methods and Rules that were used by them for the discovery of the Passover Now all the Bishops of Jerusalem till Adrian destroy'd it were originally Jews as is observed by Eusebius and so long the Christian World received the time of Easter thence but after Jerusalem had been quite Ruin'd by the Emperour and there were no more Bishops there of the Circumcision every Church began to have Rules of their own and the Christian World was divided about their Feast of Love and though many SYNODS were Assembled to determine this Matter by Pope Victor at Rome Theophilus at Cesarea and other Bishops in other Churches yet still the Dissension continued and Disputes increased till at last A. D. 325 they were happily ended by Constantine the Great in the First General Council at Nice Rules establish'd and Tables drawn up for the exact discovery of the Time of EASTER for ever THAT the Christians even from the Beginning did observe this Feast is evident from St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast not with old Leven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but with the Vnleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth And Origen an early Christian Writer in his Comments on St. John's Gospel Explains those words Now the Passover a Feast of the Jews was at hand to have been used by the Evangelist to distinguish that from the Christian Passover which was then observed THE greatest part of the Christian World since the First Council of Nice have conform'd themselves to the Paschal Rules that were there establish'd and the whole Western Church at the time of our Reformation from the Church of Rome knew of no other As in other things so in this also it was the Method of our Reformation to depart no farther from the Church of Rome than she had from the Truth see Can. 30. publish'd A. D. 1603. and in keeping of Easter conform'd her self to the same time that was then observed in Italy France Spain Germany and most other Churches of the Christian World and all this in Obedience and Conformity to the Decrees of the First General Council And to prevent all difference upon this Subject our Church hath in her very Liturgy Establish'd by Act of Parliament not only from that Council at Nice inserted this General Rule That Easter-Day is allways the First Sunday after the First Full Moon which happens next after the 21st day of March and if the Full Moon happen upon a Sunday Easter-Day is the Sunday after But also lest any difference should arise about the New-Moons hath in the First Column of the Calendar put down all the New-Moons for a Complete Cycle of 19 Years with Direction to take the Paschal New-Moons from that TABLE for ever and all this according to the Decrees of the First Council at Nice and Practise of the Vniversal Church AND though the Vernal Equinox since the time of that Council be gotten from the 21st to the 10th of March and this TABLE of New-Moons is now above Four Dayes false yet in things undetermin'd by God's Law we have alwayes Preferr'd Peace and Unity and the Communion of Saints before a Needless Separation and Division IT was once the Objection of Mr. Baxter and his Party That our Church did not keep Easter according to our own Rules and that some Years our Easter was not the First Sunday after the First Full Moon that was after the 21th Day of March But had that Scrupulous Person understood the Cycle of New Moons inserted in the First Column of our Calendar and that the Paschal Moon is to be taken thence he would have seen his Mistake and been ashamed of the Objection NOW because the Nicene Council
in Composing these TABLES hath made use of the Julian year this also is usually call'd the Julian Account the Julian year hath been vulgarly used from before the Birth of our Saviour and the way of finding Easter for above 1300 years Of the Gregorian ACCOUNT and New-Style FROM the time of the First Nicene Council till the year of our Lord 1582 the Julian year and Nicene Rules were made use of in most Countreys in the World for finding of Easter till in that Year Pope Gregory the 13th by his sole Authority Cancell'd all this Old Account Introduc'd a New Calendar Composed chiefly by Aloysius Lily and his Brother and New TABLES for the finding of Easter Because the Vernal Equinox was then from the 21st gotten to the 11th of March he ordered Ten Days to be left out of the Month of October so that the 15th Day was that Year next after the 4th from whence arose the Difference betwixt the New and Old Style our Fifth of October thereby becoming their 15th AND that my Reader may have a clear Apprehension of this matter I have here Inserted the Month of October Transcribed from one of the Original Calendars that were Printed and Published by the Command and Authority of the said Pope Gregory the XIIIth for the very Year 1582. Dies Mensis Cai desunt 10 Dies pro correctione Anni Solaris 1 Remigii Episc Confess 2  3  4 Francisci confessoris Duplex 15 Dionysii Rustici Eleutherii Mart. Semi dupl cum commemo S. Marci Papae Confessor S. S. Sergii Bacchi Marcelli Apulei Martyrum 16 Calisti Papae Martyr Semidupl 17  18 Lucae Evangelistae Duplex 19  20  21 Hilarionis Abbatis commemoratio S. S. Vrsulae et Sociarum virginum Martyrum 22  23  24  25 Chrysantae Dariae Martyr 26 Euaristi Papae Martyr 27 Vigilia 28 Simonis Judae Apostolorum Dupl 29  30  31 Vigilia I need not Insert a Translation of this Month it being obvious to every common Reader what a Skip here is from the Fourth to the Fifteenth Day and how the Commemoration of all those Saints that were usually on those Ten dayes were that year added to the Fifteenth Day Now by this Regulation of Pope Gregory the 15th Day of October was that which was call'd the 5th the 16th what was formerly the 6th and so on by which means there arose Ten Days difference betwixt the Julian or Old Style and the Gregorian or New A thing scarcely to be parallell'd except with that Humorsome Edict of Alexander the Great who when he found his Souldiers superstitiously averse from Fighting because it was the Month Desius Publish'd a Decree that for the future that Month should not be accounted the Month Desius but Artemisius and immediately engaged and beat the Enemy Or else with that more absurd Decree of the Men of Athens who when Demetrius in the Month of March had a great desire to be initiated into their greater and lesser Ceremonies one of which was constantly in the Month of November the other in August they ordered that that March should be forthwith called November and when those lesser Rites were over they Decreed again that that same Month should be called August and it was so of which the Poet Philippides thus Jested upon Demetrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That contracted a whole Year into one Month Plutarch in the Life of Demetrius Much such was the power of the Papal Bull in contracting the 31 Dayes of October into One and twenty and making the 15th Day immediately succeed the 4th And because the same Pope foresaw that in Tract of Time that Correction also would be false and the Equinox again Anticipate in the Julian Months he farther Decreed that after the Year 1600 Three even Centuries should pass without any Intercalations though they were otherwise Bissextile Years viz. A. D. 1700 1800 1900 and then that the 4th even Century or A. D. 2000. should be Bissextile again and that same Method of making only every 4th even Century Bissextile should continue for ever By which means it comes to pass that though the Gregorian Account hath hitherto differ'd but 10 Days from the Julian yet after the 24th Day of February next when in the Julian Year a Bissextile Day is to be Intercalated there will be 11 difference betwixt them And a Letter Dated on the First of March A. D. 1700 N. S. will be 11 Days before one dated the same day according to the Julian or Old Style And at the end of the next Century the Difference will be 12 Days and so on TO discover the New Moons for ever instead of the Golden Number and Tables of New Moons fitted to them the same Pope Gregory appointed Tables of Epacts and others of Equation of Epacts to continue for ever And because the taking of Ten Days out of the Month October perverted the order of the Dominical Letter the same Pope was forced to Cancel the Old and establish a New Cycle of the Dominical Letter quite different from the former That the Reformed Churches should not lay aside the Julian or Old-Style to Establish the Gregorian or New-Style HAVING thus far given a True tho' Short Account of the Julian or Old and the Gregorian or New Style the next thing that I shall here briefly inquire into is Whether it be Expedient for the Reformed Churches to continue the Julian Account and Old Paschal Tables which have been all along continued in the Christian Churches from the Primitive Times or if we leave that should follow the New-Style of Pope Gregory And tho' at first view it might seem reasonable for us in an indifferent thing and where they are nearer the Truth to comply with the Church of Rome yet in my Opinion in the Matter before us 't is by no means adviseable First BECAUSE in matters relating to Religion 't is best not to make any Alterations except upon great and pressing occasions and where our Church may get some considerable advantage by the Change or unless the matter in Dispute be determin'd by the Word of God and 't is evident from thence that our Church is in an Errour But as I shall shew presently such alteration as this is not likely to produce good but mischief to our Church and occasion new differences as it hath already done in the Palatinate Churches and the matter before us is in its own nature purely indifferent and never determin'd one way or other neither by Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament nor by Christ and his Apostles in the New Secondly IN things thus left indifferent we ought principally to be govern'd by the Determination of General Councils and when they also are silent by the Decrees and Canons of National Synods And to apply this Rule to our present purpose if we look back to the Primitive Church its evident what heats and
feuds were then amongst Christians occasion'd by the different Rules they had for finding of Easter And so long as this matter stood undetermin'd by a General Council every National Church follow'd its own way and all the Threats of Rome by Victor and other Bishops of that See signified very little towards ending of the Controversie till it was at length happily determin'd by the First General Council at Nice to whose Authority all the Churches of the World quietly submitted and Peace and Uniformity were establish'd till at length above a Thousand years after Pope Gregory revived the difference and set up the Authority of that one See above the Decree of a General Council And this the Bigots of that Religion pretend to justify How did the Church of Rome at the beginning of the Reformation Triumph over the Protestants that the Fathers and Councils were all on their side but after they had been sufficiently baffled by Bishop Jewel and other Learned Protestants and it hath been sufficiently proved that the Fathers and Councils are on our side they are run into the quite contrary Extream and in a needless controversy left the Protestants in full possession of a General Council on their side whilst they themselves ran schismatically into a manifest contempt of it and publickly own'd the laying of it aside Had the Reformed Churches done this the whole World would have been fill'd with Clamours against them and a great Outcry made of their Schism Thirdly WERE the Church of Rome in the right and the Gregorian Style far better than the Julian yet we should be backward in complying with them both upon the account of the Romanists who will construe this to be a Compliance with the Decree of Pope Gregory whose Language in this matter is very absolute and imperious Nulli ergo hominum liceat hanc paginam voluntatis nostrae infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire si quis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit indignationem Omnipotentis Dei ac beatorum Petri Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum and again qui secus secerit Excommunicationem incurrat i. e. Let no one dare to contradict this our Decree about the New Style and if any one shall presume to attempt it let him know that he incurs the indignation of Almighty God and of his holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and shall forthwith be excomnnicated out of the Church Hitherto we in England have layn under this horrible Curse and what will our present Compliance be construed but a fear of the Papal Thunder and at least a tacit Submission to that Chair Hoc Ithacus velit Much less should we comply upon the account of the Protestant Dissenters who have been always jealous of our inclining too much towards Rome and in this matter should we do it will most certainly censure and upbraid us for the Compliance and observing the Decrees of a Pope of Rome made since the Reformation and let us before-hand consider how we shall be able to answer them However it was the Wisdom of our first Reformers to comply as far as possible with the Rites and Customs of the Church of Rome and thereby bring over many of them to our Communion yet since now there is little of that nature to be hoped for our wisest Bishops have laid aside all thoughts of working upon them any further by compliance and much rather take care to Convince the Dissenting Protestants who are far the more numerous Party that we are not Popishly inclined When there was lately a Controversy in England about the Feast-day of Matthias our late Arch-Bishop to prevent a seeming compliance with the Rules of the Romish Church order'd it to be kept on the 24th day of February even in Leap-Year notwithstanding the Church had been then long in possession of a different practice and was in some measure countenanc'd in it by an Act of Parliament that order'd the 24th and 25th of February in Leap-Year to be esteem'd as the same day If we look back into former Ages we may learn from our own Bede what Struglings and long Contentions our Bishops had with the Church of Rome rather than they would alter their old way of keeping of EASTER One thing in that Controversy is very remarkable to our present purpose viz. That the Bishops of Rome did then urge against our Bishops the Decrees of the Vniversal Church in the Council of Nice Bedae Eccl. H. l 2. c. 19. and that their way of finding Easter was practised in Africa Asia Egypt Greece and almost all the World ib. l. 3 c. 25. Now it seems very unreasonable after we have been perswaded to comply with them upon those Reasons that the same Persons should now endeavour to perswade us to leave that very way which they have taught us and that too not with as formerly but against the Authority of the first general Council and the consent of the Asian African and Greek Churches which are now on our side So far will our compliance be from promoting the peace of the Church that in our joining with the Romanists we shall manifestly fall off from the Grecian Asian and other Eastern Churches who to this day critically observe the Rules of the first Nicene Council There is one considerable reason why we should be govern'd by the Rules of that Council and that is because we were at that time Subjects of Constantine the Emperor who summon'd that Council and confirm'd their Sanctions and did then submit to their Decrees about keeping of Easter as appears from that Emperors Letter preserv'd by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine One of our late Acts of Parliament Stat. 1. Eliz. ch 1. declares the Authority of that Council as next to that of the Holy Scriptures and our present Act of Vniformity hath not only Authoritatively settled the Nicene Creed but the Nicene Rules also for finding of Easter so that this matter cannot be alter'd without an Act of Parliament and change of our Liturgy which since we have been so averse to for the sake of our own Protestant Dissenters it will seem very unreasonable to do it in compliance with the Romanists That which will be a matter of the greatest moment for us to consider is whether this alteration by Pope Gregory be correct and true or whether if we should now comply with them some new Pope may not correct these Alterations and think some other way more exact as was famously done in the correct Edition of the Bible by Pope Clement VIII who in 2000 places chang'd the Infallible Edition of the Bible publish'd but two years before by Pope Sixtus V. and then we shall be again importun'd to dance after them and leave the Gregorian as they would now have us leave the Julian Account I shall therefore in the next place examine the Errors and Mistakes of Pope Gregory in correcting the Year and that First IF we would have corrected the Paschal Tables we